The present invention relates to a dentinal retention or anchoring pin for mechanically securing to the healthy dentine or root portion of a tooth a restoration of the coronal portion. The invention provides a novel tool and manipulator for inserting the pin into the dentinal portion of the tooth, together with novel storage and delivery systems.
The dental practitioner is frequently confronted with the need to replace the top or coronal portion of a tooth which may have been fractured or otherwise lost due to trauma or disease. Numerous designs of dental anchors are known which fit into predrilled channels in the tooth understructure and protrude supra-gingivally to provide an anchor or mechanical link for attaching a restoration to the dentinal portion. Such dental anchors must be very precisely inserted to avoid damaging the dentine, and especially to avoid misalignment with the channel, either of which can lead to tooth fracture. Further, due to the space limitations generally restricting dental work in the patient's mouth, an effective but compact connection between the anchor and the inserting tool is desirable, but up to now such a compact connection has not been available.